Former manager Roy Hodgson's exit and a failed stadium plan contributed to Liverpool making a £49.4m loss in the last financial year.

Club owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) wiped out £200m of debt after buying the club in October 2010.

But accounts filed with Companies House show FSG then wrote off another £35m over the Stanley Park stadium project.

On top of that, £8.4m went in pay-offs to staff, including Hodgson and former managing director Christian Purslow.

New England boss Hodgson was sacked by Liverpool in January 2011 after 191 days in charge.

The figures do not include a £25m kit deal signed with Warrior Sports.

And current managing director Ian Ayre insisted that, despite the losses, the club is in good shape.

"I think what today's accounts show is that we have gone through a phase in the last year which has involved a cleaning up of our accounts and our business," Ayre said.

Previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett abandoned established plans for a new ground in Stanley Park on their takeover in 2007, and instead engaged Dallas-based architects HKS to come up with a new 70,000-capacity design.

FSG scrapped that project soon after buying the club, believing it to be unviable, but still had to settle legal, planning and design fees, resulting in the £35m bill.

Ayre told the club website: "That particular design and stadium is not a viable project for the club, although there was a lot of cost associated with it at that time.

"I think it's important for us to move on from that and move it off the accounts, which is what has happened."